Marine Times – As the Marine Corps faces down advancing military capabilities from Russia and China and contends with the proliferation of drone tech among small terror groups the force is rapidly on the hunt for air defense systems.
To build its air defense arsenal the Corps is eyeing a number of technologies, including Israel’s Iron Dome system, known as SkyHunter in the U.S., according to Marine Corps briefing slides prepared for the Senate Armed Services Committee and obtained by Marine Corps Times via a Freedom of Information Act request.
Israel’s Iron Dome system is produced by both Raytheon and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. It has been in service in Israel since 2011, and since its fielding has a nearly 90 percent success rate, blasting more than 1500 targets, according to Raytheon.
According to the Senate briefing, the Marine Corps sought limited funding in fiscal year 2019 to begin testing and integration of the SkyHunter system with the Corps’ Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar, or G/ATOR.
